PBC owner says he's out $150k and points finger at construction company

Friday

Aug 10, 2018 at 10:38 PMAug 10, 2018 at 10:39 PM

By Patrick CampbellPocono Record Writer

SWIFTWATER — The Route 611 project in Swiftwater has been giving residents headaches.

For Silvio Vitiello, his headache has turned into a migraine.

Vitiello, owner of Pocono Brewery Company, claims that carelessness by Leeward Construction when installing drainage pipes caused the basement of his business to flood and cause an estimated $150,000 in damages.

“It’s like a kick in the ass on top of everything else,” Vitiello said. “Nobody travels this road with what’s going on (Route) 611, but we wanted this fixed. So I’m dealing with it, it’s OK — but this on top of everything else? No, I’m not OK with that.”

According to Vitiello, crews from Leeward Construction Inc., of Honesdale, were responsible for installing new culverts from the retention pond adjacent to the business but only did half the job. He claims that about a month ago crews installed pipes for water to flow from one side of the street and then covered the outlet on the opposite side of the road with rocks, damming the flow of water.

When contacted on Friday morning, a representative from Leeward Construction declined to comment on PBC's flooding.

Soon the pond Vitiello had never seen have standing water in it, began to fill. Tuesday’s storm was the breaking point as water spilled out of the retention pond, into the businesses parking lot and then began pouring into the basement. While the parking lot has a drainage system, Vitiello said a new outlet pipe was not installed on the other side of the road.

“They probably thought of why spend the money and put the time into stuff and, to me, that’s stupidity," Vitiello said. "Otherwise, this shouldn’t have been done (this way)."

On Tuesday evening Pocono Brewery Company had to close early as close to three feet of water had flooded into the basement of his building in a matter of hours. Flooding in the basement caused $150,000 in damages, Vitiello said, the bulk of that being damage to multiple refrigeration units and equipment the business uses in the brewing process.

Vitiello was also forced to discard most of the food, beverage and condiments he had stored in the basement. While the refrigeration units are down, he is forced to use a refrigerated tractor-trailer unit; however, the temporary space is only half the capacity of his basement unit's, so he is being forced to limit his menu in addition to being unable to brew beer.

Vitiello said he reached out to Leeward Construction on Tuesday afternoon and they arrived Wednesday to install a pipe on the other side of the street where they had previously laid stone. Within two hours of its installation, the retention pond that had been filling up for weeks was almost empty.

Vitiello claims the representative from the company jokingly asked if he was going to sue him after he was done installing the pipe. For Vitiello, that may be his only option— as his insurance company told him they would not cover the incident. Vitiello has been in contact with an engineer and said he “absolutely” plans to pursue legal action to recoup his losses.

Water was still flowing into the basement at 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and Vitiello said he is concerned about the foundation of his parking lot because of the amount of water that flowed underneath it.

When Vitiello contacted the Monroe County Conservation District, who is in charge of inspections of storm water runoff, he claims they informed him they only perform inspections once a month on the project. For Vitiello, the situation is frustrating because he feels business owners have been left out of the loop entirely in regards to the ongoing $12 million, three-year Route 611 project.

“They're not telling us anything. There is no one that comes around and cares about things like how the traffic is. It’s frustrating, it’s very disappointing,” Vitiello said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.